Worshipers complain to U.S. about Savanna Club board

 

Article Courtesy of the Palm Beach Post

By Lindsay Jones

Posted 08/03/04 

About 100 residents of the Savanna Club retirement community in Port St. Lucie have filed federal complaints against the homeowners association's board of directors, claiming the board violated the Fair Housing Act when members voted last month to ban religious services in the community's common areas.

Residents who regularly attend services of the Savanna Club Worship Service began filing the complaints last week through their lawyers with the Department of Housing and Urban Development's office in Atlanta, said Glen Clifton, a retired minister who leads the services.

The complaints say the board is discriminating solely on the basis of religion.

A Housing Department spokeswoman confirmed Monday the department is looking to determine whether they are valid discrimination claims. If so, an investigator will be assigned to the case to interview everyone involved and try to come up with a solution. If that doesn't work, the case could end up in court.

"We've received a number of calls into Atlanta, and we are looking into it," spokeswoman Gloria Shanahan said.

The board of the homeowners association at Savanna Club, a 1,550-home community off U.S. 1, voted unanimously last month to stop the nondenominational group from holding services in the community's clubhouses and other common areas. The rule goes into effect Aug. 13.

Worshipers, who have been meeting for an hour each Sunday morning since early 2001, have claimed the board is violating a number of their rights, including their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and assembly.

Clifton said the group will continue holding services after the Aug. 13 deadline, even if it means they will have to meet in the parking lot.

"We would still like to negotiate with them and not have to go to court," Clifton said. "But if they want to go, we'll see them there."

Board member Joel Jeffrey, the most outspoken critic of the services, said the board has done nothing illegal and simply followed the will of the community's residents, who voted 62 percent in a straw poll in favor of banning the services.

"The thing is, the board has done what we said we were going to do. They've tried all sorts of threats, and it's not come out the way they liked," Jeffrey said. "From the board's standpoint and the association's standpoint, it is done."

Jeffrey is confident the complaints will be thrown out if they make it to court, after the 4th District Court of Appeal last October ruled in favor of the board of a Hollywood condo association that was embroiled in a similar dispute with a group of Orthodox Jews who wanted to hold services in a community room.

HUD's investigation, though, will look only at whether the board discriminated on the basis of religion and will not look at other legal issues that may have applied in the Broward County case, said Robert Rubenstein, an attorney with Becker & Poliakoff who represented the Hollywood condo association, Grandview at Emerald Lakes. Lawyers from his firm's West Palm Beach office are representing the Savanna Club board.

"Since Grandview is out there and it is good strong law, they probably felt they didn't have a chance in court," said Rubenstein, who is not handling the Savanna Club case.

Lawyers representing the Savanna Club Worship Service members did not return calls Monday for comment.


See Florida Court of Appeals -Distr.4:

HERMAN NEUMAN vs. GRANDVIEW AT EMERALD HILLS, INC.


 
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